What did Ghalenoi get wrong with our AC squad

[Saam]

Hi guys,

I haven’t been following the relative fitness/readiness of players in the last few months and after watching AC I am flabbergasted as to how we have some players seriously lacking in fitness and overall suitability for this tournament- some examples like Ansarifard, Cheshmi, Hajsafi, Kanaani come to mind.

My question is, who was fit and ready but was left out due to Ghalenoi’s obvious lack of guts/laziness in building new squad members? For example, why did players like Hosseinnejad (young and good midfield prospect), Hazbavi (top cb prospect), abolfazl jalali (young and capable lb who looked good before World Cup), Allahyar miss out?

Again, this is all genuine curiosity, not being presumptuous as I said that I haven’t been in the loop on player fitness/readiness lately.

Saw very slow and uninspired play from this team so far that is going to seriously hurt us later in the tournament, especially with tired legs. We look even worse than the worst games under Skokic.

[Pluto2000]

Something that he got wrong is squad depth like you mentioned:

These following players were a MUST to be included: Hazbavi, Hosseinejad, Karimi, Nourallahi, Allahyar, (maybe Abdi instead of Moghanlou who has been given several chances?).

The matter of the fact is we don't have squad depth...if anyone in our starting 11 gets injured we are pretty much fucked and we have to deal with the likes of Cheshmi and a dinosaur shell of Omid Ebrahimi who is no longer the player he was. That's really the bottom line...our B team that he took barely beats HK 1-0. That's just a matter of fact.


The second thing he got wrong which baffles me is defensive transition and stability...I mean just what were the last 11 games for? Seems like GN has not updated his defensive tactics since the Russia and Kenya games. No offense to him but so far the only good thing he's done which I'll give him credit for is using Ghoddos more. I think that's really been the only positive since besides that he is just a slightly better Skocic so far.

[a_m]

Well, what he got wrong is that he didn’t have originality instead of bringing in new faces , new players ,he went with the same old roster of Carlos Queiroz players who are all defensive minded, but now 4 to 8 years older then when CQ discovered them,

Hosseinnejad , Hazbavi no need to have a 38 years old Omid in the team or a 33 mohganlou they done … they already had their chance ,


Iranian coaches are cloud they don’t have originality at all, like they don’t have the rust mentality , but Ghalenoi is also some who is not actually a good coach he isn’t qualified to be TM coach anyway .

[Karimi 8]

He forgot to coach the team and focused on koobideh. All he does is sit around frowning, with zero input. He is using ancient players and didn’t test anyone new. The whole thing is wrong. Obviously it’ll be fine against Palestine ans HK lol, but we are going to be seriously pushed starting the round of 16

[PSGman#19]

He forgot to coach the team and focused on koobideh. All he does is sit around frowning, with zero input. He is using ancient players and didn’t test anyone new. The whole thing is wrong. Obviously it’ll be fine against Palestine ans HK lol, but we are going to be seriously pushed starting the round of 16

Did he forget or he don't know how to coach?

[ShiroKhorshid]

The team is just too old. We got 5 players older than 32, but only 2 players under 23. A 25 year old Ghayedi is our 3rd youngest player.

Players older than 32: Ansarifard, Hajsafi, Rezaeian who are 33 and all turn 34 within the next few weeks.
Khalilzadeh (34), Ebrahimi (36).
Max. 2 out of these 5 players should have been invited.

Even most of our "star" players are around 30/31: Taremi, Jahanbakhsh, Beiranvand, Ghoddos, ...

We had one year to bring some youth to this team but totally wasted it. Really really hope players like Ansarifard, Khalilzadeh, Ebrahimi etc. will be history after this AC. Only 2 1/2 years left until the WC.

[Malkay]

Feels like the title of this thread is a bit premature, give it 9-12 days surely.

On the subject of player fitness, I believe it is ultimately the individual responsibility of every player to maintain their fitness. They control their bodies 24 hours a day and they are all professional athletes who at some point in their careers will have been given the sound advice on what they should do from a physical point of view to be peak and how to marry that with nutritional advice throughout the year; both when training and playing games regularly or in the off-season. Whether or not they take it is up to them.

Our older players you mentioned should also be wise enough to follow that advice more religiously as their bodies age and they don't get out of it as much as they used to.

Top top players have a mentality to do whatever they can to gain every inch, whether it's being out on the training pitch longer, using machinery, techniques and food to aid recovery, or the unseen stuff when they're away from the club/national team coaches, doctors and physios. It wouldn't surprise me if a number of our players don't maximise this as a number of them are not top players and have spent all or most of their careers in sub par leagues where maximising peak fitness is not as much a priority as most top European clubs/leagues.

Outside of the player responsibility, managers and coaches bare some responsibility as they set the culture within a camp. You'll have heard in the past of managers cutting certain foods and condiments from cafeterias or coaches like Magath with their punishing training regimes. It's all about margins and if you can add an extra yard of pace or 5-10 mins of peak physical condition to our players, but are not doing it, you are a big part of the problem.